How are the Brooklyn Nets adjusting their rotation?

Jordi Fernández’s first big decision as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets came Friday night when he started Nic Claxton against the Boston Celtics and pushed three-time All-Star Ben Simmons out of the team’s top five.

So far, Simmons has been in the starting lineup while Claxton has come on as he continues to recover from a left hamstring problem that caused him to miss pre-season. Fernández hasn’t really had to address this lineup issue yet, as Claxton was probably on his way to match fitness and both players weren’t yet at full health.

For example, Claxton was inactive for the Nets’ first game against the Memphis Grizzlies in which Simmons played. The former then made his first start of the season in the team’s second game against Memphis. That wasn’t a complicated decision, however, as Simmons isn’t currently playing on back-to-back nights this season and the Nets didn’t have Noah Clowney, Trendon Watford or Day’Ron Sharpe available.

Ultimately, however, this issue had to be resolved, and Brooklyn’s game against Boston marked Claxton’s first start of the campaign with Simmons active. This, in turn, changed the Nets’ rotation – probably for the foreseeable future.

Simmons said After the game, ClutchPoints stated in the comments that he was aware of the lineup change before it was published: “For the flow of the team – whatever the team asks of me, whether I come off the bench or in the starting lineup stand.”, that’s what I have to do. That’s what Coach wants right now. It is what it is.”

Brooklyn formed Claxton with Dennis Schröder, Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. This was the lineup of Fernández and Simmons, but the combination is much more natural if Claxton is used instead. This means, among other things, that Finney-Smith doesn’t have to defend and outbox other teams’ big players.

Simmons checked in for the first time with 6:08 left in the first quarter. He came on alongside Ziaire Williams, with Claxton and Finney-Smith coming off. Then the quarter ended – and then the second quarter began – with Simmons surrounded by lengths and shots. That seems to be an indication that Fernández expects the Australian playmaker, who is not yet a goalscorer for all intents and purposes, to thrive.

With 6:30 minutes left in the second quarter, a very interesting twist occurred. Fernández came on as a substitute for Claxton while Simmons was already on the pitch. The 41-year-old Spaniard had previously mentioned that he had no objection to the two playing together.

“If you look back two years ago, when Ben and Nic played together, their minutes together were very good,” Fernández said before the season. “Last year the sample size was very small. Of the 15 games, they only played ten together [Simmons] played, so you can’t use those numbers.”

The route with Claxton and Simmons combined lasted just over two minutes. During this stretch, the Nets’ offense and defense played a role statistically speaking slowed down. However, in an extremely small sample of just 10 minutes played together this season, the Claxton-Simmons duo has a surprising net rating of +50.24 so far. per PBP statistics.

Simmons left the game with about seven minutes left in the final period and didn’t return after that. Fernández briefly switched to Finney-Smith at center before subbing in Claxton and seeing the game into overtime with the former Georgia Bulldog manning the middle.

Going forward, Simmons doesn’t have any particular expectations for his role — “I try not to expect anything in the NBA,” he said — but this lineup change seems most logical for the Nets (now 4-5). Brooklyn’s next game is Saturday night against the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers (10-0), although Simmons is not expected to play as it is the return leg of back-to-back games.

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